Second-Trimester Abortions Concentrated Among Certain Groups of Women from Full Text Reports…

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Second-Trimester Abortions Concentrated Among Certain Groups of Women from Full Text Reports….

From the Full Text Reports Web page

December 23, 2011

Second-Trimester Abortions Concentrated Among Certain Groups of Women

Source:  Guttmacher Institute

In the United States, nearly nine in 10 abortions occur in the first trimester, but, until now, little was known about the 10% of women who have abortions at 13 weeks’ gestation or later. According to “Who Has Second-Trimester Abortions in the United States?,” by Rachel K. Jones and Lawrence B. Finer of the Guttmacher Institute, certain groups of women are overrepresented among second-trimester abortion patients. These groups include women with lower educational levels, black women and women who have experienced multiple disruptive events in the last year, such as unemployment or separating from a partner.

This first-ever comprehensive profile of second-trimester abortion patients in the United States relies on data from a nationally representative sample of more than 9,400 women obtaining abortions in 2008. The authors first compared first-trimester abortion patients with those obtaining abortions at 13 weeks or later to see if there were differences in characteristics between the groups; next, among second-trimester abortion patients, they compared early second-trimester abortion patients (13–15 weeks’ gestation) with those having abortions at 16 weeks or later.

Certain groups of women were more likely than others to obtain abortions at 13 weeks or later. For example, teens were more likely than older women to obtain an abortion in the second trimester—accounting for 14% of abortions among teens, compared with 9% among women aged 30 and older. Similarly, the proportion of abortions that occurred in the second trimester was 13% among black women, compared with 9% among non-Hispanic whites; 13% among women who had not graduated from high school, compared with 6% among college graduates; 14% among those using health insurance to pay for the procedure, compared with 8% among those who paid out of pocket; and 15% among those who had experienced three or more disruptive events in the past year, compared with 9% among women experiencing no disruptive events.

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Related articles

• Report: Younger, Less Educated Women More Likely To Undergo Second Trimester Abortions (thinkprogress.org)
• Study Reveals Who Gets Late-term Abortions (maboulette.wordpress.com)
• Study Reveals Who Gets Late-Term Abortions (livescience.com)